Lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan on February 22 approved the second reading of legislation that critics say will be at the heart of a chilling Putin-style authoritarian crackdown on civil society by the country’s Japarov regime. The bill is aimed at regulating the activities of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). Any NGO that receives funding from abroad will be classified as a “foreign representative”. There are fears that measures introduced by new rules, such as demands for detailed annual audits, will prove so costly and onerous to comply with that many NGOs will have to shut down. In the vote, 6…
